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MT 26 July 2017

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9 maltatoday WEDNESDAY, 26 JULY 2017 Editorial No rollback on Aarhus MaltaToday, MediaToday Co. Ltd, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR: MATTHEW VELLA ASSISTANT EDITOR: PAUL COCKS Tel: (356) 21 382741-3, 21 382745-6 • Fax: (356) 21 385075 Website: www.maltatoday.com.mt E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt Yesterday's U-turn by the Planning Authority on the accessibility to information which had been left out of its website revamp was a wel- come development, coming less than 24 hours into the disconcerting news. As practitioners of the journalistic trade, it is clear to us that full information and transparency is key to the normal functioning of a liberal democracy. On sensitive issues such as the environment and lands, a subject that matters so much for Maltese society for the way these two issues affect quality of life, this newspaper feels it could not countenance any slippage on transparency. It bears reminding readers why the information that has always been available on the PA website, in the main forced by the obligations of the Aarhus Convention, is so vital to local councils, resi- dents' associations, NGOs, environmentalists, scientists and journalists. For media workers, the website has always been a valuable tool in scrutinizing planning applications: a rare instance of transparency and access to information. The search facility makes a full scrutiny of permits pos- sible, and allows the public and practitioners to have access to the documents presented to the authority, as well as lists of outside development zone (ODZ) applications and those for UCAs (urban conservation areas). This kind of scrutiny allows the public to under- stand how their villages and towns are changing due to development and similar types of encroachment. Much of this is made possi- ble with the ability to search these permits and applica- tions by date and local coun- cil, providing an updated list of developments, as well as being able to search planning enforcements and applications by locality. Indeed, planning applica- tions are usually included in the search system as soon as they are given a PA number, which means they are online before being published in the Government Gazette. This information is impor- tant because it helps journal- ists and the general public to monitor planning permits even if they lack specific knowledge of a PA number of a particular application. Without this facility, the new website would have only catered for the needs of professionals and objectors who have a particular PA ap- plication in mind, and not to cater to planning watchdogs whose task is to scrutinize the planning applications in a more holistic way. It is positive that for the first time the PA calendar directly refers to regularisa- tion permits (introduced in 2016) – which used to be published only in the government gazette – and DNOs (development notifi- cation orders) in the same way as PA applications in the PA's calendar. The PA web- site also includes statistical information on the number of dwellings approved from 2000 to 2015 which used to be updated each year, as well as documents related to land reclamation, and pending planning control applica- tions. All of this precious docu- mentation should remain in the public domain, freely accessible to the general public. In their absence, such a development would have represented a step back- wards in terms of access to information and transpar- ency, especially because such information has been provided under different ad- ministrations for more than a decade. What matters is not just that information is provided to those interested in a particular permit as clients or objectors, but that this information is easily accessible to those whose main interest is to scrutinise institutions.

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